in America until, in this respect, the colleges mend their ways. Men must be chosen professors because of their fitness to teach specified subjects, and not on account of their notions, real or professed, concerning abstract theological dogmas. Moral character ought, of course, to be considered; but mere speculative belief, never.
Another objectionable result of college scattering is the under-payment of professors. Even our best universities have shortcomings in this respect. A teacher upon small salary is naturally somewhat unsettled in his mind, is apt to be looking about for better employment, and is liable to feel a constantly diminishing interest in his work. Stability of place and freedom from pecuniary anxiety are very important to an investigator; and just these requisites few American colleges are able to supply. A large salary is not absolutely necessary to a scholar, but a certain means of comfortable subsistence is. At present, when wholly inadequate payment is offered, there is scarcely any inducement to attract a young man into the scientific life. A professorship or tutorship may be accepted for a year or two, perhaps, just as a stepping-stone to something more lucrative, but how rarely is the teacher's vocation taken up as a career! Almost every other important occupation yields surer rewards, and a fairer prospect of attaining to a competency. A young lawyer, doctor, or merchant, if careful and industrious, may reasonably look forward to possessing at some time a home of his own, with the means of sustaining and properly educating his children; The young devotee of science, however, has rarely any such possibilities before him. His labor is as arduous as, and demands even more talent than, that of the attorney or physician, but the recompense is vastly less. If, as he ought, he gives his leisure moments to the advancement of learning, he will find his salary insufficient for the maintenance of a family. In order really to live, he must constantly be doing outside work. He will thus struggle along, year after year, in constant danger of being discharged or supplanted, and, in his old age, weary and broken down, will find himself little more than a pauper. Is it strange, then, that the best intellectual talent of America is repelled from professorial positions, and attracted into other fields of labor? Can science be expected to flourish under such a system? We pay mere popular lecturers well enough; and surely the real workers, who create science, ought to be fairly recompensed also. But we can hope for little improvement until the number of colleges is reduced, and the means of those remaining suitably enlarged. Science must offer careers to men of ability, with the rewards which capacity, skill, and faithful industry, always ought to receive.
But, after tracing all the effects produced by the division of educational forces, we shall still find other points in which our college system is prejudicial to science. Glance over the curriculum laid down in almost any college catalogue, and see how the scientific in-
